Online Holdem Tournaments

(Late Tournament Strategy)

Making it far into online holdem tournaments is an exhilarating experience. Nothing is as exciting as mixing it up with other skilled gamblers for a shot at placing in the money – or maybe even a tournament title!

Competing against the best poker players requires nerves of steal and every ounce of determination you can muster.

Hitting that big payoff is going to require reading your opponents with deadly accuracy while applying some basic gambling theory to modify your natural style of play.

If you’ve never been there before , late game strategy is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. If you want to win online holdem tournaments (or offline for that matter), you must do these things well:

  1. Stick and move
  2. First in the pot
  3. All-in or fold strategy

Stick and Move

Most poker players make the mistake of tightening up as they near the cut-off for placing in the money in online holdem tournaments.

Not you. You’re going to do the opposite – play winning poker by relentlessly stalking players who are trying to coast their way into the money.

You can attack their weak raises and probe bets occasionally but don't take it too far.

At the same time you’re going to identify other aggressive players and avoid confrontations with them when you are playing a marginal hand.

You are going to dance between hyper-aggressive attacks and careful retreats. It will require a solid read on each and every poker player at the table, so don’t lose your focus for even one hand!

First in the Pot

Much of the late stage in online holdem tournaments is simply the premium placed on being first in the pot.

Taking the initiative can often give you what is called “fold equity.” To maximize this fold equity you need to be aware of your opponents’ chip stacks relative to yours and to the blinds.

For instance, a preflop raise that’s three times the big blind may force a small stack to commit all his chips either before or after the flop if he wishes to play the hand all the way through.

Since your opponent knows this, he will have to fold anything but a very strong hand to your raise.

He doesn’t have enough chips to bluff bet and your aggression has prevented him from seeing a cheap flop. When you’re first in the pot with a raise, you’ll often take it down without a fight.

All-in or Fold

As either your chip stack or your opponent’s approaches 10-15x the big blind, you’re going to switch to an all-in or fold strategy.

No longer will you make the standard preflop raise of three times the big blind. Every hand you decide to play you’re going to get all your chips in the pot before the flop!

“That’s not poker!” you say.

Well, it might not be your natural playing style, but it is the mathematically correct method of playing.

Remember fold equity?

Now more than ever you have it. When blinds and antes are worth 15% or more of your total chip stack, you need to steal them a bit more liberally and become aware of how long you have left to live.

Trust me, when you’re forcing your opponent make a decision for all or most of his chips before the flop, he’s not going to get in their with anything but premium pairs and A-K in most cases.

The better your position, the more starting hands you can confidently get your chips into the pot with – but you need to be first!

From the button or the small blind, you can go all-in with a wide range of starting hands because the chance of your opponent having a calling hand is slim (don't push complete trash though, keep your range to medium-strength hands like A hi, K hi, JT+).

You need to be very careful about doing this from earlier positions, however.

The earlier the position, the more likely you are to be caught.

Keep in mind that your table image will change after you’ve done this a few times and people will start calling you with looser requirements, sometimes even if it isn’t correct.

Steal enough to stay ahead of the blinds, and don’t change a thing if you find yourself with a very strong hand like pocket queens. Just shove your chips into the pot like you’ve been doing already.

What separates amateur poker players from expert poker players is knowledge.

What separates expert poker players from the best poker players is heart. Understanding gambling theory, implied odds, or poker psychology is only half the battle.

Acting on your knowledge is the other half. Be fearless. Before you can start winning online holdem tournaments you have to be willing to lose.

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